verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a besetting sin literary (= one that you keep committing )
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Drunkenness was his besetting sin.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
difficulty
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But difficulties began to beset him.
problem
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During the 1980s problems beset Orkney's Social Work Department.
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But the many other problems that beset Florida on Election Day are far more deserving of a congressional investigation.
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The problems that beset Ptolemaic astronomy were pressing ones in the light of the need for calendar reform at the time of Copernicus.
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Profiteering price-hikes, and worsening inequalities between different social groups were the problems which beset Deng's reform programme.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Behind it lay a tumultuous precedent-one of the most disastrous incidents to beset the face of the earth.
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Brookner probes with scrupulous attention, keen irony and a profound appreciation of the endless ambivalences that beset human relationships.
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But this sector has been beset by problems, and the evidence suggests that they have yet to be properly ironed out.
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Each one, depending on his circumstances at the moment, feels and names the fears that beset him.
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International matches in the more traditional cricket centres of Colombo and Kandy are beset by interruptions.
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Quite apart from the class conflict endemic in capitalism, the economic system itself is beset with instabilities.
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The case has been beset by the kinds of official miscues typical in rape cases here.